Dale Howell looks at the map of the zone where deer hunting will be allowed into February and wonders what the state's game department was thinking.

"You have some counties that are completely in the February zone, and others that have just parts of the county in the zone," the Autauga County deer hunter said. "It's confusing. I don't know why they just didn't use county lines. That would make it easier to understand."

The boundary separating the two zones follows U.S. 80 from Montgomery west and Interstate 85 from Montgomery east. South of those highways, most of the area has the extended season. In most of the area north of those thoroughfares, the season ends on the traditional date of Jan. 31.

There are some exceptions, especially along the Chattahoochee River Valley in east Alabama. All of Lowndes County, even the area north of U.S. 80, and some portions of Montgomery and Dallas counties north of that line are in the area of the February season.

The lines were drawn to prevent confusion, said Chuck Sykes, director of the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

"If you are in the woods in north Dallas County, you may not know where the Dallas and Chilton county line is," he said. "Using the highways as boundaries gives people an easy to recognize line. For those areas in Lowndes, Dallas and Montgomery counties that are north of 80 but still in the south hunting zone, the boundary is the Alabama River. Again a very easy to distinguish line, so you know whether you are in the south zone or north zone."

Last hunting season had a smaller area of southwest Alabama in the February hunting zone. This year that zone was expanded greatly, covering almost the lower one-third of the state.

However, saying the season is "extended" into February in the south zone is a bit of a misnomer. Both zones have the same number of days in the season. For the north zone, firearms season opens Nov. 22 and runs through Jan. 31. In the south zone, there is a split season — Nov. 22 through Nov. 30 and Dec. 11 through Feb. 10.

Archery and spear season runs from Oct. 15 through Jan. 31 in the north zone and from Oct. 25 through Feb. 10 in the south zone.

Hunting in Alabama generates an annual economic impact of $1.8 billion, according to studies by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Deer are the most popular game animals in the state.

The two zones were established after data showed deer in the southern zone went into breeding season or "rut" later than the deer in the northern zone, Sykes said. Mature bucks are more active during breeding season, and hunters feel they have a better chance of harvesting a trophy.

That science also proved that the deer along the Chattahoochee go into rut in early to mid-December rather than late January to early February, he said. That's why that area isn't in the southern zone, he said.

"We realize everyone is not going to be happy, and we realize the way things are drawn up isn't perfect," Sykes said. "The goal is to give hunters the best opportunities to harvest mature bucks, and we have the data to back up our findings as to where the zones need to be."